Daily Mail: Sky Sports are set to snap up UK TV rights

Story from Daily Mail:

Sky Sports are set to snap up UK TV rights for this year’s IPL following a legal battle between existing rights holders DAZN and Indian media company Viacom18.

DAZN secured a five-year deal for the IPL’s international rights covering the UK, USA, Middle East and North Africa last year, but are in talks over exiting the contract following a dispute with the Indian rights holders.

Sky are understood to have stepped in with an offer to broadcast this year’s tournament in a move that underlines their preference for short-form franchise competitions over international cricket in the UK winter.

The broadcaster have held exclusive live rights for England’s home matches since 2005, but declined to bid for five Test series in India which begins on Thursday, with TNT Sports picking up the rights in a late deal last week.

Sky have also sat back and allowed TNT to buy the rights for international cricket in Australia, New Zealand and West Indies, with South Africa and Pakistan the only countries outside England with which they currently have broadcast deals for the international game.

In an apparent change of strategy Sky have instead targeted the rights for franchise T20 tournaments and are currently broadcasting the Big Bash in Australia and South Africa’s SA20.

Sky are also confident of screening the IPL in April and May, which would give them the three leading T20 franchise competitions, although the deal has yet to be finalised.

Buying the IPL rights was DAZN’s first foray into cricket, but the deal has not worked out as planned.

The streaming service sub-licenced some of the competition’s 74 matches to Sky last year and are now in the process of withdrawing entirely.

Sky and DAZN declined to comment.